Page 7 - GLNG Week 03 2021

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is reeling from the impact of the coronavirus noted that this is “the first ever tender process
pandemic. But Ukraine’s lenders are concerned in which prospective LNG customers can secure
that the government is backtracking on reform. future term supply at volumes, pricing and dura-
tions of their choosing through competitive
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping bidding”.
the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then please This approach illustrates the growing flexi-
click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor . bility in the LNG market and Commonwealth,
with support from Gunvor Group, hopes that
GLNG: Transit bottlenecks, project pro- it will win over customers more easily than its
gress competitors thanks to the variety of options it
Congestion delaying LNG shipments from the has on offer.
US to Asia via the Panama Canal is expected
to last for the duration of the winter months, Latin America: Mixed results in
when demand peaks, according to traders cited Guyana-Suriname basin
by Reuters. (See: Panama Canal congestion con- Offshore South America, the Guyana-Suriname
tributes to LNG price spike, page 15) This comes basin continues to draw strong interest – and
despite the canal’s regulator saying it had made mixed results.
changes designed to speed up transit through the In Guyana, the US super-major ExxonMobil
waterway. has reportedly experienced a disappointment at
The bottleneck is contributing to record- the Stabroek block.
high Asian spot prices, alongside freezing win- A spokeswoman for the company’s Guya-
ter weather and some supply outages. Reuters nese subsidiary told OilNOW earlier this week
reported that LNG carriers had to wait for up that the Hassa-1 well had not encountered any
to two weeks to transit the canal in December. hydrocarbons in the primary target intervals.
However, the canal’s regulatory authority told She also stated that there had been hydrocarbon
the news service that the wait had now halved to shows in other intervals but did not provide fur-
one week. Analysts and traders expect the con- ther details.
gestion to last until March. “This serves as a reminder that geologic risk
Meanwhile, certain LNG developers are is inherent to frontier oil and gas exploration
showing signs of confidence in longer-term activities,” the spokeswoman remarked. “None-
demand for the super-chilled fuel. Last week, theless, ExxonMobil remains committed to
Tellurian’s co-founder and executive chairman, evaluating the potential in our offshore Guyana
Charif Souki, said his company was targeting blocks using our world-class technology and
this summer to begin construction of the Drift- technical capabilities.”
wood LNG terminal in Louisiana. (See: Tellurian The US giant and its partners have already
hopes to start Driftwood construction this sum- discovered crude oil in more than a dozen sec-
mer, page 15) tions of Stabroek. They have estimated the recov-
“There is a strong need for additional lique- erable reserves of the block at around 9bn boe.
faction capacity and we’re probably the project Meanwhile, France’s Total has had better luck
that is the closest to starting construction,” he in Suriname’s offshore zone.
said. A final investment decision (FID) has not The French company and its US-based
yet been reached on Driftwood, but Souki said partner Apache revealed last week that they
the level of customer interest in offtake from the had struck oil at Block 58. In a statement, Total
project had increased “pretty dramatically” over reported that the Keskesi-1 well had encoun-
the past month. tered “63 metres net pay of hydrocarbons, com-
Separately, a tender was launched this week prised of 58 metres net black oil, volatile oil, and
for offtake from the planned 8.4mn tonne per gas pay in good quality Campano-Maastrich-
year (tpy) Commonwealth LNG project, also in tian reservoirs, along with 5 metres of net vol-
Louisiana. (See: Commonwealth LNG tries new atile oil pay in Santonian reservoirs.”
approach to contracting, page 13) The company Keskesi-1 is the fourth discovery made at

Week 03 22•January•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7